Interest in online supports and brief self-help interventions among cannabis using Canadian university students

Abstract

Only a fraction of problematic cannabis users ever seek treatment from specialty addiction services. This gap could be reduced via online brief interventions and self-help resources; however, it is not clear whether cannabis users would be interested in accessing those tools. We examined whether cannabis use, motives for using cannabis, and protective behavioral strategies predicted hypothetical interest in accessing online self-help resources. We hypothesized that greater interest in accessing self-help materials would be predicted by (1) problematic cannabis use, (2) using cannabis to cope with negative affect, and (3) fewer cannabis-related protective behaviors. These predictions were tested in a secondary analyses of data from 649 cannabis-using Canadian university students (42.5% male; M age = 22.5) participating in a population survey. Data were analyzed using set wise hierarchical multiple linear regression models to predict hypothetical interest in online self-help resources, from cannabis use, motives, and protective behaviors. Problematic cannabis users reported more interest in hypothetically accessing online supports than non-problematic users. Problematic cannabis use, coping, and expansion motives, and protective behaviors were positively associated with hypothetical interest in accessing online resources. Findings suggest that online self-help interventions might be an effective public health approach to reduce cannabis use among Canadian university students.

Keywords:

• Self-help
• cannabis use
• motives
• protective behavioral strategies
• university students

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the study research staff, the participants and Kevin Friese for their contributions.

Author contributions

AL, IY, and TCW wrote the protocol. AL wrote the first draft of the manuscript and completed the statistical analyses. All authors have contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this paper was supported by funding to the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM | Prairies) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [MOP 137073].